The comment thread on my original post about Oakland's new "Cathedral of Light" has about 90 comments at this point. My editorial observations were minimal, but that didn't stop several people from claiming positions for me (and strongly disagreeing with ... the positions they thought I held).

This thoughtful post by "Vitruvian Duck" gets closer to identifying the concerns I had when I first saw pictures of the cathedral. He received his Masters degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, one of the best (if not only) classical schools of (Church) Architecture in the country.

He visited Oakland recently and made observations philosophical and personal:

"... of modern society we can say 'there is no prayer there'. Men and women bustle about downtown skyscrapers, office workers drone on in the vast oceans of concrete found in office parks across the country.

Rarely, if ever, do they hear the ringing of the bells marking the liturgy of the hours. Rare is the visual reminder that they are called to higher things as they drive past a church, and when we build churches like the new Cathedral of Christ the Light, we are accentuating the problem. Our churches are not inviting people into them. Most of the time, people don't even know what that building is, and what it's for. 'Is it a dentist's office?' 'Is it a museum?' 'Is it a hospital?' 'Oh, that's a church?! I never would have guessed!'

... during the 2 hours or so we were exploring the Cathedral, I didn't see a single person in prayer. Not so surprising. I don't feel compelled to pray at office buildings, either."

Christians are called to be salt and light to the world (Mt. 5:13-16), and I just can't help but feel that this Cathedral of Light is salt that has lost its flavor.

Cathedral of Saint Francis de Sales suffered some damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. One year later, Bishop John Cummins announced that the structure would have to be torn down because the diocese could not afford the repairs, and in 1993 the cathedral was demolished. The estimated cost of repairing and performing seismic upgrades of both St. Frances de Sales and the Sacred Heart Church, also damaged in the earthquake, was $8 million.

7
posted on 10/08/2008 10:34:15 AM PDT
by Between the Lines
(I am very cognizant of my fallibility, sinfulness, and other limitations.)

I’ve driven by it. It’s bigger than it looks. Also the picture of Christ behind the altar was said to look 3 dimensional when the light shines through the windows. That photo he linked to must have been when the sun is behind the nearby buildings.

We are in quake territory and very few churches look like the old cathedrals here. The ones built in that way didn’t last through the previous quakes. Almost all the Spanish Missions in CA are not the originals. The one is San Juan Batista (seen in the movie Vertigo) was built about 30 feet from the San Andras.

Oakland? Nah, it’s for software company that didn’t survive the dot com bust.

Seriously, though, the bishop of Oakland is very good, but apparently the contract was already in place when he arrived and there was no way of getting out of it without paying more money than the diocese had. Plus, of course, the former bishop was not good, and his henchpersons were still in charge at the chancery when the new bishop arrived.

I tell you this, even if this is beautiful by current secular architectural standards, it will not age well. It reminds me of the post-stalinist architecture in Russia and elsewhere, that was superior to what preceded it and hasn’t aged well at all.

During the summer I am able to get to daily Mass. There is nothing that I like more than walking into our parishes around town; smelling the candles, and seeing the altars in traditional style. The candles, altar, Tabernacle, votive candles, the Crucifix in prominent display, statues of our Blessed Mother, and the Stations of the Cross.

The candles, altar, Tabernacle, votive candles, the Crucifix in prominent display, statues of our Blessed Mother, and the Stations of the Cross.

You are absolutely right. "Smells and bells". The aroma of incense also helps to draw us into prayer. When you consider the cost of building a 'cathedral' today, the bishop would be better off restoring the original structure.

29
posted on 10/09/2008 10:10:55 AM PDT
by NYer
("Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ." - St. Jerome)

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